Thursday, May 12, 2011

the tulip festival brings such celebration, pretty flowers, and amazingly tasty food vendors to holland. as i just cannot deny myself a hotdog on homemade bun, homemade potato chips and elephant ear, i utilized an opportunity when brad was away at work to schlep the kids downtown. thankfully, my beautiful sister kels was able to join us and assist with my cuties who are ever so curious and busy.

to make the night even more delightful, val allowed me to borrow a seriously precious dutch costume perfect for my exquisite daughter. now, i did have a little mom guilt about this as i have never dressed the boys up and sat them in front of tulips. this is what i know: girls are better at dress up. and the clothes are much more fun with the skirts and accessories and whatnot. as i am attempting to culitvate boyish boys, i do not feel guilty any more that i did not force them to pose for tulip time pics.

moving forward then. i came prepared with the double stroller, just in case bear wanted a ride on this day of no napping. a spot of aylaroo, a spot for weston. well that scenario quickly was dashed as max crammed his 4.5 yr old self in one seat and bear claimed the other. so baby ayla was snug in the sling. kelsey had the difficult task of pushing the stroller full of boys around. thankfully she has a lot of muscles packed into that cute little bod. so. we reached our destination: the tulips of centennial park.

kels distracted the boys with some fish in the pond while i dressed my little cutie pye in her costume. soon they were all settled in front of some pink tulips and i began snapping pics like a madwoman. (yes, those froggy boots bear has on are aunthentic dutch footwear)

while i knelt beside maxer and ayla to reposition and adjust, bear stood up. i mentally made a note to settle him next. before i had a chance to settle anything, bear had his britches down and was aiming a stream of pee all over the tulips. not. even. joking.

in an effort to block him from view, i stood in front, constantly asking him to put that thing away.

so he aimed at me.

my pants were soaked in pee.

just when things could not get worse, maxer whipped his self out and joined in the pee party.

naughty. embarrassing. illegal.

so sorry tourists.

kels and i quickly fled the scene of the crime and went for higher ground. the food vendors. on the way, the boys were drawn to the water fountains. when they cleaned both me and kels out of pennies, we were able to persuade them to eat. we enjoyed some fried goodness, drowning our sorrows in grease.

oh memorable night. when we finally made our way to the veen, kels commented "it feels so good to just sit down". welcome to my world sis. it is called chaos.

Monday, May 9, 2011

motherhood is the most exhausting, amazing, troubling, rewarding, beautiful, never-ending, consuming, and delightful job in the whole world. in fact, it is way more than a job, it is a lifestyle. and i adore it. this is not to say that i experience many moments of despair, frustration, and confusion on a daily basis raising my three babes. no matter the amount of time i spend overwhelmed by the enormous task before me, i spend triple overwhelmed at the blessing it is to get to live as a mother to three beauties of my own.

yesterday, mothers day, i enjoyed being appreciated and celebrated by my fab fam. brad ensured the boys yelled happy moms day at every opportunity, and planned a day full of my fave parts of being a mommy:

1. mcdonalds (not really anything to do with being a mom, i just literally can never have enough)

3. enjoying some time all together in close quarters: a road trip to the binder park zoo. with a small detour in kalamazoo to look at a truck for brad.

4. experiencing the zoo with all my faves. moms got in free at binder park zoo and brad orchestrated a family fun day together. loved. it.

5. being in the presence of my amazing husband and sweetly presh kids.

6. living the adventure of family. yesterday's adventure was marked with a journey into the wild african safari on a footpath as we thought the tram cost extra and are way to cheap to pay $2 a person when you can walk for free. after several yards we became a little frightened at the fact we were the one and only family choosing to hike and turned right back around to the welcoming tram line only to find it was in fact free. hallelujah. but really, the whole motherhood thing is one big adventure.

what a perfect day of family fun. except for the small time fram during which i was quite sure my little angel ayla was allergic to the sunscreen because she rubbed it in her eye and the entire right side of her face was swollen and splotchy. an hour later, she looked far less deformed and i could breathe easier knowing i most likely did not poison my daughter and make her blind for life due to my overindulgent use of baby sunblock.

thanks to brad for making me a mom and a super special day. thanks to jesus for orchestrating it all and giving me the miracle of motherhood.